Athlete team kicks off fall race season on fire as Stone wins Europe’s UTMR

The North Face Adventure Team blazed into the fall race season with several big performances the past few weeks. Stone certainly set the tone with a huge win in Europe in the first edition of the 100 mile Ultra Tour Mount Rosa (UTMR). The epic course took in 12,000 meters of elevation with many high passes around the infamous Matterhorn and big climbs/descents much longer than the UTMB. Stone took the lead after 100km and despite getting lost in the dark at one point managed to find the way and keep in front for a dramatic first huge win in Europe for Stone and the team (http://www.ultratourmonterosa.com). Amazing photos by Lloyd Belcher above from the UTMR (http://lloydbelchervisuals.com).

If 100 miles in the Alps does not sound challenging enough -the same weekend Jay cycled 1,200 km over endless mountain road passes on a 7-day solo stage race through 4 of Thailand’s provinces. Super Jay won the race battling several experienced international riders after making a break on a huge hill climb finish on day 3.

This past week Chung put on full display his current fitness level by breaking Hong Kong's Totem 57km course record by 33 minutes in a race he planned to “take it easy” due to next week's 100km event he will be racing in Korea. Chung also won the new DMZ 3-day stage Ultra race last month also in Korea – yes quite an interesting time to be racing along the border region of North and South Korea! (http://www.dmztrailrun.com).

Jay also laid down another world-class Ultra Trail performance in Australia in the this past week’s Hounslow Classic 68km Ultra (http://www.hounslowclassic.com.au). Billed as the hardest pound for pound Ultra in the country with 4,500 meters of climbing, Jay showed up under the radar and surged into the lead by 6 minutes half way through the race. Unfortunately, Jay came to find out his fingerless gloves were not enough under the gear rules (needed to be full finger) and they made him wait for 20 minutes as tough penalty, requiring him to restart 14min behind the new leader...Jay chased hard to close gap to 7min but it was just too much and finished 2nd overall.

Other nice recent wins included the Kolko Nature Adventure in Malaysia by Safrey and sweet victory for Ryan on his old home turf in Oregon,USA in the Monkey Face trail race….as well as local wins by Jay in Thailand at both the Lanna Adventure Race and Lanna Mountain Bike Championships.

This years fall calendar looks to be the busiest yet for the team with everyone healthy and so many great events now across Asia Pacific, and notably many raising money for several important charities. This coming weekend will be a big one with 7 Athletes racing in 3 key events including: